CardiacAssist Will Exhibit and Host TandemHeart® Symposium at Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) Annual Meeting

“Clinical Innovations in TandemHeart® Support” will feature presentations by three leading cardiac specialists:
Dr. Ricardo Bello, Montefiore Medical Center;
Dr. Scott Silvestry, Thomas Jefferson University Hospital; and
Dr. Daniel Steinberg, Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC)

PITTSBURGH--(BUSINESS WIRE)--CardiacAssist Inc. announced today that it will exhibit its TandemHeart® System in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., at the Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) 46th Annual Meeting that begins next week. TandemHeart can be placed rapidly in the cath lab or operating room, providing the most flexible and powerful percutaneous device for temporary circulatory support for critically ill patients. TandemHeart is now being used in nearly 90% of the “Best U.S. Heart & Heart Surgery Hospitals” as ranked by U.S. News & World Report—with more than 1,800 TandemHeart procedures performed to date at nearly 150 hospitals across the U.S.

“Best U.S. Heart & Heart Surgery Hospitals”

The STS Annual Meeting and Exhibition will be held at the Greater Fort Lauderdale/Broward County Convention Center, Jan. 24-27, 2010. CardiacAssist will be in booth number 1623 with information and displays pertaining to the TandemHeart System.

Additionally, CardiacAssist will host a user-group symposium—“Clinical Innovations in TandemHeart Support and User Group Meeting”— by invitation only on Monday, January 25th, with case presentations by Dr. Ricardo Bello, Montefiore Medical Center; Dr. Scott Silvestry, Thomas Jefferson University Hospital; and Dr. Daniel Steinberg, Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC). The symposium will focus on cutting-edge uses of the TandemHeart to treat critically ill patients who have a variety of cardiac conditions. Attendees will learn “tips and tricks” from the most progressive TandemHeart physicians. Current and prospective TandemHeart users are encouraged to attend the symposium, which will be held at “Shula’s on the Beach”, 321 N. Ft. Lauderdale Beach Blvd., from 6-8 p.m. To RSVP for the event, please contact Monica Bush at 412-963-7770, x247, or via email at [e-mail].

FDA-cleared TandemHeart can be placed rapidly by both interventional cardiologists in a cath lab and by cardiac surgeons in an operating room to provide short-term circulatory support to patients requiring additional cardiac assistance. The device provides effective and reliable temporary circulatory support for critically ill patients. Hemodynamic support includes a high net blood-flow rate of up to five liters per minute in the catheterization lab or up to eight liters per minute in the OR—more than twice the amount of other available technologies—and is fully reimbursed by Medicare under existing DRG codes.

“Nearly two thousand of the most dire cardiac patients at a majority of the finest hospitals across the United States have benefited from TandemHeart availability, which is why TandemHeart is destined to become standard of care in extracorporeal circulatory support,” said Michael Garippa, CEO and President of CardiacAssist.

About CardiacAssist

Headquartered in Pittsburgh, privately held CardiacAssist is a growing and profitable medical technology company that develops, manufactures and markets cardiac assist devices. The Company has developed the world’s first and only proprietary platform, FDA-cleared and CE-Marked TandemHeart®, which provides a short-term extracorporeal circulatory support system for both cardiologists and cardiac surgeons.